ClassyWas Excellent, smart action film.

Konterr Brilliant and touching

RipDelight This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

Matylda Swan It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

Hitchcoc Hey guys! The moon is female. The scientists are all excited about an upcoming eclipse. A host of them bring their telescopes to report on and enjoy the event. The first part is the only interesting one. When the moon (which has a female face) goes in front of the Sun, there is some hanky panky going on. They react in a sexual manner. Yes, it certainly surprised me. The remainder of film created a galaxy of tiresome images. It isn't that they were poorly painted, but how many times have we seen a woman lounging on a crescent moon. It's kind of wild but repetitive.

Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de) "The Eclipse: The Courtship of the Sun and Moon" is a black-and-white silent film from 1907, even if you will find a few versions where they added sound or color afterward. But if you look at the year, you know what to expect here. And at the maker as Méliès was really the number 1 filmmaker during this really early era for the movies. I personally would say that these nine minutes here are not among his best and certainly not on par with his most known moon movie. It sure was a frequent subject back then and this fascination should go on for a long time afterward mounting in the race to space even. Okay drifting away now, no pun intended. And even if I did not like it that much overall, I think it is interesting to see how they are moments and scenes that may have inspired comedies in the century to follow. Oh yeah let me say that I watched the 9-minute version. I see there is also one at 6. Overall, really only the most hardcore silent film fans and Méliès fans should give this one a look. Even if it is among the master's most known works as of today, I believe a great deal of his gigantic body of work is superior to this one here and that's why I give it a thumbs-down.

gavin6942 An astronomer of age, wealth, and erudition conducts classes in his home. His students are not always respectful, and he suffers their pranks and high jinks. Then, at noon, everything darkens and the astronomer hurries upstairs to his telescope. It is an eclipse of the sun, and through his glass, he sees a female moon coming toward a masculine sun, flirting as they move closer to what becomes a consummation...As others have noted, this is not Melies' best work. It is still a fine film, with more than its share of humor. And quality-wise, it has held up much better than "A Trip to the Moon" (1902) and looks as clean and clear as any modern film.If possible, catch this film live. The patio in Chicago played it in April 2015 with Jay Warren on the organ. This completely changes the way the film is experienced when you get that in-house sound.

wmorrow59 Considering the brief running time of this bizarre and delightful little film, it's impressive how much detail, incident, and humor director Georges Méliès managed to pack into it. I've seen it three or four times now and catch something new every time.The opening scene is strongly reminiscent of Méliès' most famous work, "A Trip to the Moon," made five years earlier. Once again we find ourselves in an ancient classroom of some sort, with benches arranged before a lectern, and once again the audience members march into the room like military cadets. But this time, instead of Victorian astronauts-in-training, we see a group of young astronomy students carrying telescopes across their shoulders like rifles, wearing costumes that suggest this story might be set in the 17th century. The white-bearded professor enters (once again played by Méliès himself) wearing the familiar star-bedecked robe and carrying himself with much pompous authority. This time, however, low comedy devices are employed to deflate the lecturer's pomposity: during his lecture the scribe falls asleep, a prankish student pins a paper doll to the back of his robe, etc. etc. Yet when it's time for the eclipse the students are genuinely excited, and eagerly rush to the window for a better look while the professor races upstairs to watch from his observatory.As an earlier poster remarked, the eclipse sequence that follows really must be seen to be believed. We look on in amazement as The Sun --here depicted as an ugly, nasty-looking demon with pointed ears-- sidles up behind the coy, smooth-faced Moon and proceeds to inspire an unmistakable orgasm, as The Moon's facial expressions convey the full range of erotic pleasure. To call this "suggestive" doesn't do it justice: this is a sex scene without the sex, no two ways about it. One thing I still can't determine after several viewings is whether the actor playing The Moon is a mannish-looking woman or an effeminate man. Usually in art and literature the moon is portrayed as feminine (our "man in the moon" notwithstanding), but whichever the case, Miss Luna certainly looks ready for a cigarette and a nap afterward.Méliès follows his coup-de-cinema with a charming sequence in which the planets Venus, Mars, Saturn, etc., are also portrayed as personified characters (ones that behave more decorously than the Sun and Moon, mind you), after which we're treated to a meteor shower. This brings us back to the elderly professor, who has become so excited by the astronomical display that he tumbles out the observatory window into a rain barrel. The film concludes with a slapstick coda as the old man's students and assistants awkwardly attempt to dry him with blankets.The conventional wisdom concerning Georges Méliès is that his best days were already past by 1905 or thereabouts and that his subsequent films were dull and repetitive, but this one at any rate is far from dull. In fact I'd rank "The Eclipse" with the man's most delightful films, and recommend it to anyone interested in early cinema. Happily, the print recently restored for the Kino series 'The Movies Begin' is clear and sharp, and in far better shape over all than most of the director's other surviving works.